With this, the total strength in the Supreme Court will go up to 30 against a sanctioned strength of 31. The names were cleared by the Centre recently.

While Lalit’s name was doing the rounds for the past two months, what is significant is the elevation of Bhanumati. The judge would be the second woman sessions judge to rise to the country’s highest court.

Earlier, Justice Fathima Beevi, who started as a sessions judge in Kerala, had been promoted to the apex court in 1989.